The island of Madagascar lies 450 kilometres from the southeastern coast of Africa. The fourth largest island in the world, it is noted for its unique trees and animal life, the result of being torn away from the African continent in prehistoric times.
It was initially settled by Polynesians and Malays, not Africans. European contact came as Portuguese explorers pushed eastward, eventually establishing the spice trade with India, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. With increasing trade and Pacific storms, shipwrecked European sailors established isolated settlements that evolved into safe harbours for pirates who preyed upon the Indian and European trading vessels, especially the heavily laden British, French, and Portuguese company ships. Captain Kidd and other famous pirates used the island as a base for raiding the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and Indian Ocean. An influx of Somalis and other groups gave the island diversity. The kingdoms on the Island entered the slave trade to cater to that developing market. Inter-tribal conflicts provided the bulk of slaves for the lucrative trade.
The Napoleonic Wars spread from Europe to the Indian and Pacific Oceans as both Britain and France needed to protect their trade with the East. Both wished to lay claim to the island. Each tried to capture the Island but both were repulsed.
Unity came to Madagascar with King Radana I. His Merina troops defeated the other tribes to form the Kingdom of Madagascar. He used diplomacy to deftly avoid both British and French attempts to colonize the Island. The Merina court was dressed in European mode copied from French fashions. The army trained using European methods and arms. Radana died at the age of 36 from complications arising from overindulgence in alcohol and sex - cirrhosis and syphilis.
In a complicated series of conspiracies, bribes, and murder, Radana's "Great Wife" seized control. Ranavalona (we'll use "Rana" for short) disliked her husband's attempts to modernize and mimic European ways. She was more traditional, especially when it came to methods to kill her subjects. Any possible claimants as well as their potential supporters were murdered in "traditional ways." She increased her army, defeated a French invasion attempt, and worried about the very limited cannons and muskets available to defend her throne. The solution was to make weapons on the island but the technology was lacking.
The seas surrounding Madagascar were dangerous. Just like the pirates who settled on the island a century before, another shipwrecked sailor provided the skills needed. A French adventurer, Jean LaBorde, came ashore after his ship sank in a storm. He was able, Rana was advised, to "cast cannon, bore muskets, and manufacture powder" in addition to his other skills. As the law decreed that castaways became property of the Queen, there was no need for negotiation. LaBorde was her slave to do with as she wished. As it happened an ancient folktale on the island concerned a shipwrecked white man who married the daughter of a king, became king himself, and brought justice and prosperity to all. Myth was becoming reality.
Rana continued to kill off more and more of her subjects in many horrible ways. The traditional "tanguena' saw victims tied up and thrown into a convenient ditch for several days without food or drink, then crucified in a circle around their village. Of course, Rana employed many diverse methods of torture and killing. Entire cities numbering thousands in population were attacked without reason, most of the men killed and the women and children sold as slaves. This provided slaves and thus income for Rana and the nobility of the island in addition to nipping any potential rebellion in the bud. The soldiers were allowed to plunder as they went. By the end of her reign, it is estimated that Rana had murdered between a third to a half of her subjects.
LaBorde was directed to provide cannons, muskets, and powder. LaBorde soon found the raw materials needed on the island. An industrial site was developed outside of the capital near the source of the raw materials. Factories were established to make iron and powder and to manufacture the weapons needed. The complex was soon producing all manner of consumer goods making the Island self-sufficient in weaponry and much more. Willing or not, LaBorde himself became the lover of the Queen who was already well known for her gargantuan sexual appetite. As a gift to his queen, Laborde designed and built a massive wooden palace as her residence. A traveller noted that over five thousand men were needed to drag one massive tree trunk to the construction site where it became one of the many columns in the new palace.
Rana had permitted Christian missionaries to settle on Madagascar. A new convert merged some of the traditional beliefs with Christianity and grew in popularity like a modern day televangelist. His cult grew and grew. In order to persuade Rana to join, he and his followers marched on the capital. Rana was not pleased. The Prophet and his immediate followers were captured, tortured and killed in short order. The remaining cult members were taken and sold into slavery. While she had tolerated the missionaries, she was now suspicious of the large number of converts to Christianity on the Island and made plans to arrest all and sell them as slaves. Before that could happen, the British abolition of slavery, enforced by the Royal Navy, ended her plans. As a result, Rana banned missionary schools and demanded that any converts to the religion come forward, accuse themselves, and publicly confess before returning to the native religion. Those who did not were to be put to death. Most chose to renounce Christianity and paid fines to the Queen.
One of the main events of the Madagascar social calendar was the Royal Buffalo Hunt. As Rana's dead husband thought roads would only serve to facilitate the movement of French or British invaders, by royal decree there were no roads on the island which made this rather difficult (only paths and tracks enabled movement on the island) Rana ordered a road to be built daily for her journey. So every day some 12,000 slaves toiled at making the road for the next day's journey. Others constructed a small town daily to accommodate Rena's nightly stop, complete with fortifications. Worse, this was not a small expedition into remote parts of her domain. She demanded that all of her nobles must join her on the hunt and that they had to bring their families and servants with them. It is estimated that some fifty thousand came with her on the hunt. Each had to bring their own food and supplies or live off the land. Many famished and many died.
Rana's relationship with Christianity varied with the wind. At times, the London Missionary Society would be in favour and allowed to establish missions. This would be followed by a demand that all such missionaries leave the Island and any converts recant or face death.
During her lifetime, Rana successfully prevented either the British or French from claiming Madagascar as a colony. When both joined forces for an attack, they were defeated by Rana's well-trained and equipped army. Twenty of those left behind by the invaders were beheaded, their heads mounted on poles near the beach where they had landed. They would remain on display for eight years. An attempted coupe was put down in a ruthless manner, the leaders pushed off a cliff to their deaths. When even Laborde was found to be part of another plot, he and the other Europeans who could not be killed outright by lawful means were sent to the coast to board a ship. Instead of taking a direct route, the banished Europeans were forced to take a much longer route that passed through malaria and fever infested swamplands. Few made the entire journey.
Ranavalona died peacefully in her bed during her seventies. In a few years, Madagascar came under French rule. It is said that Ranavalona's ghost returned to the Island when a plague struck shortly after her death.
